Bottle closures



BOTTLE CLOSUR 8 Filed Oct. 24, 1952 1 WE NTOK fosswonm GREENE l1 TTORNEYS United States Patent BOTTLE vctosUnEs Edgeworth Greene, Great Notch, N. J., assignor to Inter- Seal Corporation, Spring Lake, N. J., a corporation of Delaware Application October 24, 1952, Serial No. 316,657

Claims. (31. 215-29 This invention relates to protective closures for bottles and other containers, and is concerned more particularly with a protective closure having novel features which enable it to be readily applied to the top of a container, such as a bottle, and to be secured firmly in place without the use of spinning or similar machine operations.

The closure of the invention consists primarily of two cooperating parts, a cover or body member and an outer locking sleeve, and may be manufactured in several different forms to include a simple cap with or without internal threads, or, for tamper-proof purposes alone, with a flat top to be applied as a protective structure over an ordinary closure such as a screw cap, a wood top cork, etc.

In another form of the invention, the closure is made of molded plastic material and is of the non-refillable type having a valve, a float, etc. Once any form of the new closure is applied to a container, it is locked in place and cannot be removed without destruction of the locking sleeve. Accordingly, the closure in non-refillable form is especially advantageous, since the closure cannot be removed from an empty bottle, the bottle refilled, and the closure replaced. A non-refillable example of the new closure will, therefore, be illustrated and described in detail for purposes of explanation.

A typical non-refillable closure now in commercial use is shown in my Patent No. 2,497,599, issued February 14, 1950, as including a valve casing entering the mouth of the bottle and having a rim overlying the end of the bottle, a chamber, which engages the rim of the casing, and a gasket seated on the end of the bottle around the rim. The chamber and casing are made of a molded plastic material, such as a synthetic resin, and the closure is held in place by means of a metal ferrule partially telescoped over the inner end of the chamber and having an internal flange at its outer end, which is embedded in the outer wall of the chamber. In the application of the closure to a bottle, the casing is inserted in the-mouth of the bottle and the ferrule is telescoped over the end of the bottle. Pressure is then applied'to the chamber to cause it to clamp the gasket and the rim of the casing tightly against the end of the bottle, and, while the pressure is maintained, the part of the ferrule telescoped over the neck of the bottle is spun by machine under a circumferential bead, which forms part of the external finish of the bottle.

While the ferrule is an effective means for securing the closure in place on the bottle, the cost of the ferrule is an important item in the cost of the closure. Also, because of the spinning operation required, the machine and labor charge for application of the closure is substantial.

The present invention is, accordingly, directed to the provision of a novel closure for bottles, which affords all the advantages of similar closures utilizing a metal attaching ferrule and is less expensive to produce and apply. The new closure includes a cover, which may be an ordinary cap or the chamber or'like part in a closure of the non-refillable type and is provided with a plurality of flexible tongues telescoping over the neck of the ice bottle, when the cover is in place thereon. The tongues are provided near their ends with means engageable beneath a circumferential bead on the bottle finish and the closure includes a sleeve, which initially encircles the cover and can be slipped along the tongues, after the closure is in place on the bottle, to flex the tongues in wardly. The tongues and sleeve arealso provided with interlocking means, which prevent upward movement of the sleeve, after it has been slipped downwardly sufiiciently far to cause the tongues to engage behind the bead.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view of one form of the new closure applied to an upright bottle;

Fig. 2 is an elevational view of the closure of Fig. l with parts broken away;

Fig. 3 is a view, partly in vertical section and partly in elevation, of the new closure as it is being applied to a bottle;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 44 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a view, partly in section and partly in elevation and with parts broken away, of a modified form of the closure; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view, partly in section and partly in elevation, of another form of the closure.

The closure illustrated in the drawing is of the nonrefillable type and it is adapted for application to a bottle 10 having an exterior finish, which includes an outer circumferential bead 11 and an inner circumferential bead 12 of greater outside diameter than bead 11. At the end of the neck of the bottle, the wall is somewhat thickened, as indicated at 13.

The closure comprises a cover 14 providing a chamber, from which leads a pouring passage 15. A button or fly trap 16 lies within and closes the outer end of the pouring passage, when the bottle is upright, and the buttonhas a stem 16a received in a recess in the neck of a guard 17, which extends downward from the button into the chamber and has a hollow lower end of conical outline. The guard is provided with radial ribs 18, which extend from the top of the neck down below thelower edge of the conical portion. 9 t Y The closure also includes a casing 19, which enters the mouth of the bottle and has a rim 19a overlying the end of the bottle and res'tingupon agasket 20 of resilient material, which is seated upon the end of the bottle. The casing has an opening at its lower end surrounded by a valve seat engageable by the gate member 21 of the valve. Outwardly beyond the member 21 are a float 2 2 and a ball weight 23, the latter extending partially into the hollow inner end of the guard. When the bottle is upright, the gate member 21 closes the opening through the casing and supports the float which, in'turn, supports the ball weight. The casing is provided with internal radial ribs 24, between which liquid issuing from the opening through the casing may pass by the gatemember and float. I

The casing and cover are ordinarily made of molded plastic material and the cover is provided with a plurality of integral tongues 25, which extend axially from its inner periphery. Each tongue is provided at its lower end with a transverse rib 25a projecting inwardly ,and another transverse rib 25b is formed on the outer surface of each tongue between its ends. A sleeve 26 of plastic material encircles the cover and is formed with an internal upstanding shoulder 26a lying between its ends. The outer part of the cover defining the pouring passage is formed with a screw thread 27 for engagement with the threads of a cap not shown. I

In the application of the closure to a bottle, as shown in Fig. 3, the parts of the closure are assembled with the rim 1% of the casing lying within the lower end of the cover. Gasket lies within the tongues against the lower end of the cover and the rim 19:1 of the casing, and the sleeve is positioned above the tongues which spring outwardly to telescope the bottle neck. As the closure is then moved toward the end of the bottle with the casing 1? entering the bottle mouth, the ribs 25a of the tongues will snap over the head 11. The gasket 20 will now be seated on the bottle top and then be subjected to pressure to compress it in order to effect a tight joint between the several parts.

The length of the tongues 25 is such that, when the gasket is sufficiently compressed against the end of the bottle in the application of the closure, the internal ribs 25a on the tongues will closely underlie the circumferential bead 11 of the bottle finish. While the pressure on the closure to compress the gasket is maintained, the sleeve 26 is slid downwardly, and, as it rides over the external ribs 25b of the tongues, the ribs 25a are thrust against the head 11, and the central parts of the tongues are forced inwardly into the space between the enlarged end of the bottle and the bead 11. As the downward movement of the sleeve is continued, its shoulder 26a passes beyond the ribs 25b and the tongues tend to straighten out. Preferably, the proportional dimensions are such that the internal major diameter of the sleeve 26 above its shoulder 26a is always less than the external diameter between outer faces of the external ribs 25b on a pair of oppositely disposed tongues 25, when the closure is seated on a bottle prior to application of the sleeve. When this relationship is observed, the engagcmeut of the outer faces of the ribs 25b with the inner surface of the sleeve, after the sleeve has been moved downwardly to cause its shoulder 26a to pass the ribs, will accomplish two purposes, (a) to cause the internal ribs 25a to press firmly against the bead 11 of the bottle finish and hold the compression of the gasket, and (b) to insure and maintain the effective locking engagement of the ribs 251) and the shoulder 26a due to the slight bowing of the tongues inwardly which causes them to react outwardly, as clearly shown in Fig. 5. It is preferable to form the internal rib 25a on each tongue with an outer surface lying at an angle to the axis of the closure, so that the surface will make a good contact with the bead 11 of the bottle finish, regardless of minor variations in th siz f the b d th n manufa ur n tolerances.

The passage of the internal shoulder 26a on the sleeve beyond the external ribs 25b on the tongues prevents return movement of the sleeve. The closure is thus locked on the bottle and the sleeve and tongues are interlocked in such manner that the closure cannot be removed without damage to or destruction of the sleeve. The attachment of the new closure to the bottle may, according y, e e f by a simp man l mov m n of the sleeve downwardly without the more complicated machine spinning operations, such as are employed in applying a closure with a metal ferrule to a bottle. The lower inside edge of the sleeve 26 is beveled, as also is the top surface of the ribs 25b and the lower inside surface of the ribs 25a, all of which facilitates the telescoping of the tongues over the bottle top, and the sliding of the sleeve into a locking position.

In the application of the cap to the closure, it is now common practice to make use of a cap, which consists of a circular panel and a cylindrical skirt. This cap is slipped over the threaded end of the closure and the skirt is then rolled to fit the closure surface, the skirt being pr ided with threads in h ro l ng ope i n- During the rolling of the skirt of the cap against the closure, the chamber of the closure is subjected to torque, which may possibly cause it to slip angularly. In the new closure, such risk of slipping can be avoided by providing the bottle finish with an external lug 28 receivable into the space between a pair of the tongues 25 rib 250, which is similar to the internal rib 25a.

on the cover of the closure. When the closure is applied to a bottle having such a lug, with the lug lying between a pair of tongues, the closure is held against angular movement, which might otherwise occur during the rolling of the skirt of the cap.

in the construction shown in Fig. l, the further downward movement of the sleeve 26 is arrested by the inner circumferential bead 12 on the bottle finish, although in a container, such as a metal can, with a short neck, the body of the container would serve the same purpose. Preferably, the closure may be applied to a bottle independent of such a bead, the tongues 25 then being providcd at their lower ends with an external transverse The sleeve 26' used with the closure having such ribs is then the same in all respects as sleeve 26, and the internal shoulder 26a of sleeve 26 is spaced inward from the inner end of the sleeve a distance such that the shoulder has passed beyond the outer external rib 25b on the tongues, when the lower end of the sleeve is in contact with the rib 250 on the tongues.

The construction shown in Fig. 6 is similar to that shown in Fig. 5 except that the sleeve 2 is not provided with an internal shoulder. Such a sleeve may be secured to the ribs by a suitable solvent applied to the bottom edge of the sleeve 29 just before the sleeve is applied, so as to secure it to the body tongues.

It will be apparent that the new closure is substan-v tially cheaper than one provided with a metal ferrule for attachment to a bottle, since the tongues can be formed on the cover during the molding of the latter and the sleeve may be molded of plastic in a simple operation and is of negligible cost. In the application of the closure, the latter is locked to. the bottle merely by moving the sleeve downwardly to the desired extent and, therefore, no machine spinning operation is required.

In the drawing, each of the tongues 25 is shown as having ribs 25a and 25b, and, in Fig. 5, 250 in addition. This is not essential. For example, if required for molding purposes, ribs 250 may be omitted on alternate tongues, and ribs 25b may be omitted on intervening tongues having the terminal ribs 25;. Likewise, if the tongues were made of sheet metal, obviously alternate ones would be bent inwardly to form the equivalent of ribs 25a, and in.- tervening ones outwardly to form the equivalent of ribs 250.

Relatively small dimensional variations, due to manufacturing tolerances, particularly in glassware, are compensated for in a vertical direction by corresponding varia ions i h deg e to h ch he ga k is mp s Likewise, those tolerances that are present transversely, simp y h o a m n r degree. t e extent f fiexur f the tongues 25, such as with bottles of major and minor p d met s, upon i h t clos re s being pp i d- I claim:

1. A clo ur or bo r ed it an er r fi ish including at least one circumferential bead lying downward from the end of the bottle, which comprises a cover adapted to be mounted on the end of the bottle and having a plurality of tongues extending axially from its periphery, the tongues depending along the outside of the bottle and having projections engaging behind the bead, when the cover is in place on the bottle, a sleeve encircling the closure and movable downwardly along the tongues to an effective position, in which it holds the tongues with their projections in bead-engaging position, and interlocking means on the sleeve and tongues operable on movement of the sleeve to its effective position to interlock and prevent return movement of the sleeve in a reverse direction to permit said projections to be freed from their bead.- engaging position.

2. A closure for a bottle as defined in claim 1 in which a gasket lies in a position to rest on the open end of the mouth of the bottle and the bead-engaging projections on the tongue and the interlocking means are cooperative to lock the closure on the neck of the bottle with the gasket under compression against the open end of the neck of the bottle.

3. A closure for a bottle as defined in claim 1 in which said interlocking means are concealed when the sleeve has been moved to its effective position.

4. A closure for a container formed with an exterior finish including at least one circumferential bead lying downward from the top end of the container, which comprises a cover adapted to be mounted on said end and having a plurality of tongues extending axially from its periphery, at least some tongues having stops on their outer sides adjacent their free ends, the tongues depending along the outside of the container end and having projections engaging behind the bead, when the cover is in place on the container, a sleeve encircling the closure and movable downwardly along the tongues to an elfective position, in which it holds the tongues with their projections in bead-engaging position, the stops preventing downward movement of the sleeve beyond said position, and interlocking means on the sleeve and on at least some of the tongues operable on movement of the sleeve to its efiective position to interlock and prevent return movement of the sleeve in a reverse direction to permit saidprojections to be freed from their bead-engaging position.

5. A closure for a bottle formed with an exterior finish including a pair of spaced circumferential beads lying downward from the end of the bottle, which comprises a cover adapted to be mounted on the end of the bottle and having a plurality of tongues extending axially from its periphery, the tongues depending along the outside of the bottle and having projections engaging behind the outer head, when the cover is in place on the bottle, a sleeve encircling the closure and movable downwardly along the tongues to an effective position, in which it holds the tongues with their projections in bead-engaging position, the inner bead preventing downward movement of the sleeve beyond said position, and interlocking means on the sleeve and tongues operable, when the sleeve has been moved to its effective position, to interlock and prevent upward displacement of the sleeve from said position to permit said projections to be freed from their bead-engaging position.

6. A closure for a bottle formed with an exterior finish including a lug and at least one circumferential bead lying downward from the lug, which comprises a cover adapted to be mounted on the end of the bottle and having a plurality of tongues extending axially from its periphery, the tongues depending along the outside of the bottle and having projections engaging behind the bead, when the cover is in place on the bottle, the lug then extending between a pair of tongues, a sleeve encircling the tongues and movable downwardly along the tongues to an effective position, in which it holds the tongues with their projections in bead-engaging position, stops on the outer sides of the tongues preventing downward movement of the sleeve beyond said effective position, and interlocking means on the sleeve and tongues operable on movement of the sleeve to a position to engage said stops to interlock and prevent movement of the sleeve in an upward direction to permit said projections to be freed from their bead-engaging position.

7. A closure for a bottle formed with an exterior finish including 2. lug and at least one circumferential bead lying downward from the lug, which comprises a cover adapted to be mounted on the end of the bottle and having a plurality of tongues extending axially from its periphery, the tongues depending along the outside of the bottle and having projections engaging behind the bead, when the cover is in place on the bottle, the lug then extending between a pair of tongues, a sleeve encircling the closure and movable downwardly along the tongues to an efiective position, in which it holds the tongues with their projections in bead-engaging positions, and interlocking means on the sleeve and tongues operable on movement of the sleeve to its effective position to interlock and prevent return movement of the sleeve in a reverse direction to permit said projections to be freed from their beadengaging position.

8. A closure for a bottle formed with an exterior finish including a lug and a pair of spaced circumferential beads lying downward from the end of the bottle, which comprises a cover adapted to be mounted on the end of the bottle and having a plurality of tongues extending axially from its periphery, the tongues depending along the outside of the bottle and having projections engaging behind the outer head, when the cover is in place on the bottle, the lug then extending between a pair of tongues, a sleeve encircling the closure and movable downwardly along the tongues to an effective position, in which it holds the tongues with their projections in bead-engaging position, the inner bead preventing downward movement of the sleeve beyond said position, and interlocking means on the sleeve and tongues operable, when the sleeve has been moved to its effective position, to prevent upward displacement of the sleeve from said position to permit said projections to be freed from their bead-engaging position.

9. A closure for a bottle formed with an exterior finish including at least one circumferential bead lying downward from the end of the bottle, which comprises a cover adapted to be mounted on the end of the bottle and having a plurality of tongues extending axially from its periphery, the tongues depending along the outside of the bottle neck, when the cover is in place on the bottle, an internal projection on each tongue adjacent its free end, the projection being adapted to engage the inner side of the bead, an external projection on each tongue between its free end and its root, a sleeve encircling the closure and movable downwardly along the tongues, and an upstanding internal shoulder on the sleeve movable past the external projections on the tongues and thereafter cooperating with said projections to prevent return movement of the sleeve, the major internal diameter of the sleeve above the shoulder being less than the diameter between the outer faces of the outer projections on oppositely disposed tongues, when the closure is seated on a bottle prior to application of the sleeve.

10. A closure for a container formed with an exterior top finish including at least one circumferential bead lying downward from the end of the container, which comprises a cover adapted to be mounted on the end of the container and having a plurality of tongues extending axially from its periphery, the tongues depending along the outside of the container end, when the cover is in place on the container, an internal rib on each tongue adjacent its free end, the rib having an outer surface at an angle to the axis of the closure and adapted to engage the inner side of the bead, an external projection on each tongue between its free end and its root, a sleeve encircling the closure and movable downwardly along the tongues, and an upstanding internal shoulder on the sleeve movable past the external projections on the tongues and thereafter cooperating with the external projections to prevent return movement of the sleeve.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 325,230 Anderson Sept. 1, 1885 662,812 Perry Nov. 27, 1900 824,341 Cordes June 26, 1906 1,239,725 Richardson Sept. 11, 1917 1,259,221 Folly Mar. 12, 1918 2,045,480 Magnesen et a1 June 23, 1936 2,497,599 Greene Feb. 14, 1950 

